W O R L D

UN: Syria refusing visas to Western aid workers
Geneva, July 16
Syria is refusing to grant visas to Western aid workers but the United Nations is trying to overcome its objections so as to expand its humanitarian operation in the face of growing needs, a senior UN aid official said on Monday. The world body currently deploys 60 expatriates in Syria, where some 1.5 million people are deemed in need of assistance amid escalating violence, he said.
A view of destroyed vehicles in Homs. — Reuters

PML-N denies talks with PPP over caretaker PM
The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has denied media reports that it is holding any back-channel talks with the PPP over a caretaker set-up. "I absolutely deny reports doing the rounds in political circles that the PML-N is secretly talking to PPP leaders over the future election date and names for the caretaker set-up," party spokesman Pervez Rashid said.

Crowds rally in Tokyo for end to N-power
Tokyo, July 16
More than 100,000 anti-nuclear protesters marched through central Tokyo on Monday to voice their opposition to atomic power, putting up the pressure on under fire Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

Protesters march during an anti-nuclear demonstration demanding a stop to the operation of nuclear power plants in Tokyo on Monday. — AFP

Military mentor to N Korean leader dismissed
Seoul, July 16
He was the guardian figure always at the side of North Korea's young new leader. As the top army official, his experience and position lent Kim Jong Un credibility with the troops. Now, Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho is out, dismissed from several powerful posts because of "illness," state media said today in a brief surprise announcement just days after he last appeared in public.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (R) with Chief of General Staff of the Korean People’s Army Ri Yong-ho in Pyongyang in this file photo. — Reuters

UN: Syria refusing visas to Western aid workers

Geneva, July 16
Syria is refusing to grant visas to Western aid workers but the United Nations is trying to overcome its objections so as to expand its humanitarian operation in the face of growing needs, a senior UN aid official said on Monday.

The world body currently deploys 60 expatriates in Syria, where some 1.5 million people are deemed in need of assistance amid escalating violence, he said.

"We have a number of visas pending for international staff from a number of Western countries - the United States, Canada, the UK, France and one or two more - that are refused their visas because of their nationalities," John Ging told reporters after chairing the Fourth Syrian Humanitarian Forum.

"That is something we object to very strongly and are working with the Syrian government to overcome," he said after the closed-door talks in Geneva attended by Syria's envoy Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui.

UN officials were taking up the visa issue "on a daily basis" with Syrian authorities, who otherwise have been upholding an agreement reached in early June for expanding the UN aid operation, he said.

Ging also said Syria's wheat harvest would fall by more than 700,000 tonnes this year, citing the result of a survey carried out by two UN agencies, the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), due to be issued next week.

Syria consumes 4 million to 5 million tonnes of wheat a year but harvests over the last in last six years have fallen short of that, forcing it to import wheat. "That is something we need to be prepared to cope with because there will be less wheat on the market," Ging told Reuters.

The WFP - whose food rations are distributed by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent - aims to feed 850,000 people in Syria in July, up from 500,000 in June, he said.

"The principal challenge is insecurity on the ground and also a shortage in funding," Ging said.

Two separate UN appeals, $189 million for humanitarian needs inside Syria and $193 million to help Syrian refugees who have fled abroad are only 20 percent funded, he said. — Reuters

Activists report clashes in Damascus

Beirut: Activists say opposition fighters are clashing with Syrian government forces in the capital Damascus for a second day. Activists and residents say the fighting in several neighborhoods is among the heaviest since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March last year.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso say Monday's clashes concentrated in the districts of Kfar Souseh and Tadamon. — AP

PML-N denies talks with PPP over caretaker PM
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has denied media reports that it is holding any back-channel talks with the PPP over a caretaker set-up.

"I absolutely deny reports doing the rounds in political circles that the PML-N is secretly talking to PPP leaders over the future election date and names for the caretaker set-up," party spokesman Pervez Rashid said.

Rashid also expressed ignorance over speculations that human rights activist Asma Jahangir was being tipped as possible Prime Minister in the interim set up envisaged in the Constitution.

The 18th Amendment provides for setting up of a caretaker government in a meaningful consultation between the PM and the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly. A similar process was recently successfully undertaken in the appointment of eminent jurist Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) triggering speculations that both major parties are secretly negotiating on the interim structure.

Crowds rally in Tokyo for end to N-power

Tokyo, July 16
More than 100,000 anti-nuclear protesters marched through central Tokyo on Monday to voice their opposition to atomic power, putting up the pressure on under fire Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

On the hottest day of the year, protesters forsook their air-conditioned homes to say the country does not need nuclear energy after last year's Fukushima disaster raised concerns about the safety of atomic power.

It was the biggest demonstration since Noda said last month Japan needed to restart reactors shut down for safety checks to avoid electricity shortages that might hit the economy.

"Today temperatures reached record high levels," Noda told Japanese television, as the city sweltered in 36.6-degree Celsius. "We must ask ourselves whether we can really make do without nuclear power."

Noda has come under increasing pressure amid growing public distrust of nuclear power, and his Democratic Party of Japan party was hit last month by mass defections after he pushed through an unpopular sales tax increase.

Noda's Democrats still control a majority in the lower house of Parliament, but are outnumbered by the opposition in the upper house. Many analysts say mid-term elections could be called.

Protest organisers said 170,000 people turned out, closing one of Tokyo's main streets. Police estimated their number at up to 75,000, local media reported.

Most demonstrators were middle aged-the constituency that has been the bedrock of support for the governments that ruled Japan during the growth years of the post-war era, powered by nuclear energy that many thought was cheap and safe.

"Japan is going to destroy itself by building nuclear plants in such an earthquake-prone country," said one protester, who gave only his surname, Saegusa.

All of the country's 50 nuclear reactors were taken off line after last year's earthquake and tsunami triggered the world's worst atomic accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

Nuclear power had previously supplied nearly 30 per cent of Japan's electricity. The first of two reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power Co that passed widely criticised safety checks started earlier this month and another one is due to be fired up later this month. — Reuters

Military mentor to N Korean leader dismissed 

Seoul, July 16
He was the guardian figure always at the side of North Korea's young new leader. As the top army official, his experience and position lent Kim Jong Un credibility with the troops.

Now, Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho is out, dismissed from several powerful posts because of "illness," state media said today in a brief surprise announcement just days after he last appeared in public.

Ri did not appear ill in recent appearances, feeding speculation abroad that Kim purged him in an effort to put his own mark on the nation he inherited when father Kim Jong Il died in December. At the same time, there was no sign of discord at Ri's last public appearance at a high-level event, barely a week ago.

Still, Ri's removal, whether for health reasons or political missteps, shakes the core of the authoritarian regime's power structure and may be a sign that Kim is tensing his grip on power, just as his father and grandfather, founding leader Kim Il Sung, did in their eras.

The decision to dismiss the 69-year-old from top military and political posts was made at a Workers' Party meeting, convened uncharacteristically Sunday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

"Whether because of a physical malady or political sin, Ri Yong Ho is out, and Pyongyang is letting the world know to not expect to hear about him anymore," said John Delury, an assistant professor at Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies in South Korea. — AP